Interview: Bao Phan (CPA Mountain)

Bao Phan is working daytime and nighttime, 7 days a week as Online Marketing Consultant for CPA Mountain. He has been in the industry nearly 4 years since his days in college. He helps established CPA Mountain and is now doing his best to turn the company into a competitive Affiliate Network in the industry, in the near future.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?

I am Bao Phan, 26 year of age and was born in Vietnam, raised up in America. Currently not in married status, just have a busy life trying to work hard, earn money and pay off my debts; especially student loans.

2. How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?

I’ve been in affiliate marketing since I was still in college. I got involved in this business soon after I came across some freebie offers that offered me free laptop if I’d to fill out surveys. Before I knew it, my email account was spammed like viruses attacked. It was then that I looked into the offers further and after doing many researches, I learned about the industry and started a website of my own.

3. What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?

The biggest mistake I’ve made when first started doing Affiliate Marketing was not doing enough research and read enough posts on forums to learn about the pros and cons of the industry. I was too eager to make quick dollars that did not realize people on the web can be so tricky. I was careless of my personal website that it ended up hurting my business relationship with Networks due to fraudulent traffics.

4. Tell us a little bit about CPA Mountain and what you do over there?

CPA Mountain recently open few months back. Even though we are just started up affiliate network like many out there, but with knowledge and experiences that my colleagues and I have, we are strived to bring nothing but positive outcomes to the Network and be competitive Marketing Agency in the near future. With that in mind, my position at CPA Mountain is to stay up to date with Publishers and Advertisers on daily basic.

5. There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes CPA Mountain different?

To be honest, the more I talk about CPA Mountain, CPA Mountain will sound as another common affiliate network out there. To be concise and concrete; Action speaks louder than words, let our business partners be the judge of that.

6. Do you offer biweekly or weekly payment? If so, how much does one have to make to qualify?

We are net 30th affiliate network. Like Publishers, we also get pay from Advertisers mostly Net30th and sometime up to Net45th. If we can bring in quality traffics for Advertisers, we then can have the confidence to make deal with Advertisers to request higher payout and faster payment. Therefore, we can offer Publishers on weekly payment as long they can help us generate quality traffics over $1,000 and have been with us for over 2 months.

7. Do you have any exclusive offers that other networks don’t have?

We are expecting more Exclusive offers soon as our team are talking to local businesses for possible business opportunities. At the moment, we have exclusive offer; CustomeCardZone.

8. Which offers are performing well on your network?

Top two verticals within our Network are: Education and Dating. Online College Directory and Mate1 are the two top offers.

9. Which traffic sources prove to be the most effective for your top earning affiliates – E-mail, PPC, PPV, Facebook, Media Buying or any others?

We have Publishers do well under banner display and email marketing methods. Other promotion methods that generate decent volume on traffics include SEO and social networks.

10. I see you are using HasOffers as your affiliate tracking platform. What made you pick them instead of choosing LinkTrust, DirectTrack and HitPath, etc? Do you have a plan to create your own tracking platform?

We’ve tested out Demo for LinkTrust, DirectTrack, and HitPath and loved all three. But, not to be lying, HasOffers tracking is simple to use and it is within our budget for NOW.

11. What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at CPA Mountain? How does CPA Mountain prevent and handle fraud?

We welcome everyone to the network as long as they have the motivation and determination to work hard and drive real quality traffics. We give Publishers a second chance if they have red flag under Publishers performance history; however, they will be under the radar.

12. For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network – What’s the best way/time to reach you?

Best ways to reach us are phone call away, E-mails and AOL Instant Messenger.

13. In your opinion, what are the best places for a new affiliate to learn affiliate marketing? What advice would you give for them?

The best places for affiliates to learn affiliate marketing would be top affiliate forums such as; Digital Point, 5 stars Affiliates. And as always, contact your affiliate managers for help.

14. What are the keys to building successful relationships between Affiliates and Affiliate Networks? What are some of the challenges of being an Affiliate Manager/Owner?

Keys to building successful relationships between Affiliates and Affiliate Network is Affiliate needs to be as real as he/she can be. Honesty is one of the key to be successful in business. Many Affiliate Mangers from Networks are willing to work with Affiliates and provide the services and supports as long Affiliates can show that they’re in business to earn hard working money.

Challenges of being Affiliate Manger is finding real and honest Publishers. It is very tough to get a hold of Publishers when all you want is to help find suitable offers for them.

15. What are your goals in 2010? And how is the progress so far?

Goals in 2010 are to co-establish an Affiliate Network, build strong business relationships with other Affiliate Networks in the industry, take things slow and focus on one project at a time.

I enjoy long walk on the beach, look at sunset, dolphin swimming…..NO, I KIDDDD, I’m simple, Sports: Basketball, Bowling, Football. Go out to public places such as bar to meet people and socialize. Current top favorite movie would be JACKASS 3D. Reason is simple, the guys are JACKASS!

Many thanks to Bao for sharing your time with us and for sharing some great insight tips here! If you have any experience with CPAMountain.com Affiliate Network, please write a review for them on the CPA Mountain review page.

Ps. If you are an affiliate marketer, AM or Network owner and are interested in answering a few questions about you, your network and affiliate marketing, please drop us a message.